The U.S. food stamp program is losing about $1 billion a month because of alleged fraud and errors, Sen. Joni Ernst has said.
Known as the "Snap Back Inaccurate SNAP Payments Act," the legislation would slash spending by nearly $1 billion a month by ensuring that all errors-regardless of the amount-be counted.
The number of Americans enrolled in the SNAP program increased to 41.2 million in 2022 from 35.7 million in 2019, according to data released earlier this year by the USDA. Meanwhile, SNAP costs rose to a record $119.5 billion in 2022 from $60.3 billion in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Iowa Republican said that most of the errors from the food stamp program are overpayments or benefits paid to recipients who aren't actually eligible to receive them.
Speaking to The Washington Times, Ms. Ernst said the state of Maryland is one of the worst offenders, paying out benefits to more than 86,000 residents who didn't qualify for the SNAP program.
In recent years, an increasing number of fraud cases relating to food stamps or other federal programs, particularly in the form of organized schemes run by those actually running such programs, have also been prosecuted across the United States.
Fraud and errors relating to food assistance programs aren't the only problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment